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Wednesday, 17 December 2014

It would take 70
percent of people in Swaziland more than 61 years to earn the price of the new
custom-built car Princess Sikhanyiso, the eldest daughter of King Mswati III,
took delivery of this month (December 2014).

Sikhanyiso took
possession of a customised Kia Soul SUV at a cost of E450,000 (US$45,000).
Newspapers in South Africa reported the car would usually cost E350,000 but the
Princess demanded extras, including passenger video screens as part of an entertainment
centre with a premium sound system.

King Mswati rules
Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch and 70 percent of his
subjects have incomes of less than $US2 a day. Thousands of people in the Swazi
textile industry are about to lose their jobs because the United States has
withdrawn favourable trade benefits under the Africa
Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) because of Swaziland’s poor record on
workers’ and political rights.

The Independent
Group of newspapers in
South Africa reported Princess Sikhanyiso took possession of the car in a
ceremony covered by both the kingdom’s daily newspapers.

The Independent
reported, ‘At a ceremonial
presentation of the car at a Kia dealership in Mbabane, the Minister of
Transportation, who was appointed by Mswati, presided over the lifting of a red
veil draped over the princess’s vehicle.

King Mswati and his
Royal Family have been criticised for years outside of Swaziland for their
lavish spending. The King himself has a fleet of Mercedes and BMW cars. In 2009
it was revealed he bought up to 20 Mercedes Benz S600
Pullman Guards at a cost estimated to be US$250,000 each.

The cars can
resist an attack with small arms projectiles, a grenade or other explosive. One cars’ website described the Pullman Guard as ‘The car of choice for up-and-coming
dictators.’

The King claimed that the McDonnell
Douglas DC-9 twin-engine jet was a gift from an
admirer, but declined to say who it was. This led to speculation that the jet
had been purchased out of public funds.

Tuesday, 16 December 2014

There is no date set to review restoration of Swaziland’s status under
the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), despite claims from Prime
Minister Barnabas Dlamini that his government has met requirements to introduce
democratic reforms to the kingdom.

Rodney Ford, a spokesman for African affairs at the U.S. State
Department, was quoted
by Bloomsberg News saying, ‘Swaziland is among many countries under review,’ and no
decision had been made on whether the kingdom had taken steps since US
President Barack Obama’s decision to withdraw AGOA trade benefits from
Swaziland.

Bloomberg quoted Ford saying
there was no scheduled date for the review to be announced.

The US announced in June 2014 that preferential trading status under AGOA
would be removed on 1 January 2015, from Swaziland which is ruled by King
Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

The US withdrew
Swaziland’s AGOA privileges after the kingdom ignored an
ultimatum to implement the full passage of amendments to the Industrial
Relations Act; full passage of amendments to the Suppression of Terrorism Act
(STA); full passage of amendments to the Public Order Act; full passage of
amendments to sections 40 and 97 of the Industrial Relations Act relating to
civil and criminal liability to union leaders during protest actions; and establishing
a code of conduct for the police during public protests.

‘We have made our concerns very clear to Swaziland over the
last several years and we engaged extensively on concrete steps that Swaziland
could take to address the concerns.’

Now, Swaziland Prime Minister Dlamini, who was not elected to office by
the people but appointed to head the government by King Mswati personally, is
claiming that the kingdom has met the requirements and should have its benefits
restored. He is being supported in this by the Swazi Observer, a group of newspaper in effect owned by the King.

Dlamini and the media in Swaziland have been blaming trade unionists in
the kingdom for the withdrawal of the AGOA benefits, even though they have no
power to implement the changes the Americans are seeking.

Already 1,450 jobs in the textile industry have been lost in Swaziland
and many more are expected to go in the New Year as a result of the loss of
AGOA benefits.

Since announcing the removal of AGOA benefits in June 2014, the US has
continued to criticise Swaziland for its poor human rights record.

In August it
criticised Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini after he called for two workers’
leaders to be ‘strangled’ after they criticised his government’s human rights
record. It called the comment ‘threatening’.

It
added, ‘The United States continues to support and defend fundamental
freedoms, including freedom of association, and the human rights defenders who
fight for these values each day. We call upon the Government to renounce the
Prime Minister’s remarks and to ensure respect for the constitutionally
enshrined rights of all citizens.’

In July 2014 the US State Department criticised
the jailing for two years of magazine editor Bheki Makhubu and human rights
lawyer and writer Thulani Maseko after they wrote articles critical of the Swazi
judiciary.

In a
statement the State Department said,‘Their convictions for contempt of court for publishing
an article critical of the High Court of Swaziland and their ongoing
prolonged detention appear to undermine respect for Swaziland’s human rights
obligations, particularly the right to freedom of expression, which is
enshrined in Swaziland’s own constitution and the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights. The United States strongly supports the universal
fundamental freedom of expression and is deeply concerned by the actions of the
Swazi Government.’

Monday, 15 December 2014

Media freedom
advocates have criticised Swaziland’s Supreme Court for awarding record libel damages against the kingdom’s only privately-owned
daily newspaper in favour of the Senate President Gelane Simelane-Zwane.

Africa Echo Ltd,
which runs the Times of Swaziland
group, was ordered to pay Simelane-Zwane, who is better known in the kingdom as
Gelane Zwane, E550,000 (US$50,000) after it published stories stating that she
had lied about her birth name.

The Swazi News newspaper had reported in
2009 that Zwane was not born a Simelane and this would make her ineligible for
her then office as acting chief of KoNtshingila. At the time she was engaged in
a battle to retain the chieftaincy which depended on her being a Simelane.

The Media Institute
of Southern Africa (MISA) Swaziland chapter said in a statement, ‘This recent ruling has sent further
chills through Swaziland's already heavily censored and fearful media.’

It added, ‘The
three judges who handed down the ruling - Nigerian-born Esta Ota; American Bar
Association member Stanley Moore; and Lesotho-born chief justice Michael
Ramodibedi - emphasised the high-status of Simelane-Zwane in Swazi politics and
society, suggesting the more powerful one is the more they deserve from a
defamation case.’

MISA added, ‘In
silencing the media the judiciary is ultimately harming the prospects of the
nation. Without open and unfettered debate, progress will only benefit the
fortunate few at the top.

‘In suppressing
sincerely held opinions or inconvenient truths in the name of respect, the
judiciary is displaying remarkable disrespect for the principles of natural
justice and tolerance. If freedom of speech is continually trampled on, the image
of Swaziland in the eyes of the world will continue to decline. It is not the
so-called “disrespectful” or “offensive” speech that causes the problems; it is
the criminalizing and silencing of that speech, of that open debate, which
causes the problems.

‘In handing out
disproportionate rulings in defamation cases in the name of protecting the
powerful, the judiciary is harming Swaziland’s constitution, which should be
protecting free speech and media freedom.’

Reporters
Without Borders called the
award of damages ‘exorbitant’ and added it was ‘tantamount to a death sentence’
for the Times of Swaziland.

Cléa Kahn-Sriber,
head of the Reporters Without Borders Africa desk, said in a statement,‘This
damages award, the largest ever made against a Swazi publication in a libel
case, is out of all proportion to the harm the newspaper is alleged to have
caused the plaintiff, said. In the light of the financial situation of
Swaziland’s media, one can only regard this exorbitant award as a government attempt
to throttle the country’s only independent daily. We call for this ruling to be
overturned as its sole aim is to gag the media.’

The three Supreme
Court judges giving their judgement said the newspaper had been reckless in not
checking its facts before publishing the stories.

Sunday, 14 December 2014

News that the
construction of a E800m (US$80m) strategic oil reserve facility at Phuzumoya in
the Lubombo region of Swaziland has stalled should not surprise anyone.

King Mswati III
promised his subjects in 2013 that the facility was ‘geared into transforming
lives and take the entire region into higher heights’.

But, like so
many of the King’s promises, it did not materialise.

The Sunday Observer newspaper, which is in effect owned by the King, who rules Swaziland as
sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported, ‘The Phuzumoya project is
for the construction of a 90 million litres national strategic fuel facility
which will see the country’s energy sector assuming a central role in the
development of the kingdom and its economy.’

‘When launching
the project, His Majesty assured that those to be affected by the project in
whatever way would be taken care of, to the satisfaction of everyone concerned.
The project will be funded by taxpayers.’

However, the
failure at Phuzumoya, is just one of a long line of broken promises made by the
King. In November 2009ilKing
Mswati announced a plan partly financed from in the oil state of Qatar
to build an E35bn (US$4.8bn at the then exchange rate) ‘world class
facility’ that would store at least a three-month supply of fuel for Swaziland.
It did not happen.

In November 2012 the king returned from a trip to the
United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Taiwan, claiming
that he had secured Taiwanese investment to build a pharmaceutical plant, a
food processing plant, a bottled water plant, a cosmetics plant and a granite
and marble venture – which, according to a report in the Times of Swaziland newspaper, were expected to create more than 3,000
jobs. It has not happened.

In April 2009 King Mswati III announced
the building of a multi-billion emalangeni Swazi City, financed by
international money and comprising a 25,000 sq m shopping, entertainment and
‘wellness’ centre ‘to rival the world’. There would be a Science and Technology
Park, a hi-technology industrial Site and an expansion of the Matsapha
Industrial Site. It would be completed by 2012, creating 15,000 new jobs. It
did not happen.

In October 2009 the Government the King handpicked promised
an E1.5bn ‘facelift’ for the Swazi capital city Mbabane. That money would buy a civic
centre and a shopping mall, described at the time as a ‘fully fledged state of
the art 21st Century Civic Centre befitting a country’s capital city’. Work was
expected to start in June 2010 and take three years to build. It did not
happen.

In October 2010, the Swazi Government announced
its ‘fiscal adjustment roadmap’ to save the kingdom’s economy. This would
include attracting investment to create, ‘between 25,000 and 30,000 new jobs’
in the private sector. These jobs have not materialised.

These are just some of the plans announced that border on
fantasy. The truth is that Swaziland is a poor country that has no need of luxury hotels capable of hosting 53 heads of state at a time. Seven in 10 of
the Swaziland population of 1.3 million are so poor they earn less than US$2 a
day. No foreign investors are going to want to be involved in such schemes.

The Swaziland Government has no money to build grandiose developments.

A report published by
the UK think-tank Chatham House in September 2013 stated that Swaziland’s
gross domestic product is only 1 percent of that of its neighbour South Africa
and was a relatively poor country compared to other countries in the region and
in recent years it has failed to reach the same levels of economic growth as
its neighbours.

‘The Swazi economy is on an unsustainable trajectory,’
the report concluded.

Saturday, 13 December 2014

The High Court in Swaziland has ordered the forced eviction of more
residents from their stick-and-mud homes to make way for the building of a
technology park, dubbed a ‘vanity project’ for King Mswati III.

The King, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s
last absolute monarch, wants to build a Royal Science and Innovation Park/ Biotechnology
Park at Nokwane.

The High Court in Mbabane ordered the eviction of 20 people from their
homes. There were also forced evictions from Nokwane in September 2014 after
residents failed to stop a court order.

In the latest move, residents failed to convince the High Court that
they had any legal right to be on the land.

Judge Mpendulo
Simelane said the ownership of the property was vested in the King in trust for the
Swazi Nation and the King had allocated the land to government through the
Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology for the construction of
the Park.

He also ordered the demolition of ‘all and every illegal structure
erected’ on this farm.

In 2010, Moses Zungu, the Project Manager for the Royal
Science and Innovation Park/ Biotechnology Park, said the first phase of the
project, which would involve basic infrastructure such as roads, drainage,
landscaping and other works, would cost E850 million (US$85 million). He said
the first phase would start in April 2011 – more than three years ago.

No needs analysis for the development has been published, but Zungu said
in 2010 the science park was the initiative of the King.

In July 2011 it was revealed that the Swazi Government had taken out a
US$20 million loan to part-finance the science park. The loan, in the form of a
line of credit, was from the Export-Import Bank of India.

More than seven in ten of King Mswati’s 1.3 million subjects live in
abject poverty with incomes of less than US$2 per day. The kingdom has the
highest rate of HIV infection in the world and earlier this year the Swazi Minister
of Health Sibongile Ndlela-Simelane said there was not enough money to pay for drugs to prevent the
death of children from diarrhoea in the kingdom.

The ceremony is ‘a sacred event’, the Swazi Observer said in an editorial
comment.

Incwala is a controversial ceremony that takes place
between November and January each year. Traditionalists say Incwala is a
‘national prayer’, but Christian groups have criticised it for being ‘un-Godly’
and ‘pagan’.

The ceremony is shrouded in secrecy and participants are
barred from talking about what happens. The Observer
reported Incwala ‘has now become a major tourist attraction with hundreds of tourists
flocking the country to witness the colourful event’.

The newspaper added, ‘It has been noted that the numbers of locals and
tourists that attend the ceremony are increasing each year.’

However, the ‘hundreds’ the Observer said were expected to attend the ceremony this year are in
stark contrast to the 50,000 people it was said attended the 2013 ceremony.

The Observer
reported, ‘The
ceremony, which also marks the fresh fruits of the season, has a spiritual
power that is largely lost on outsiders, and indeed many of its inner workings
remain shrouded in secrecy.’

The secrecy surrounding the ceremony in which King
Mswati, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, goes
into ‘seclusion’ has aroused much controversy in the past.

Failure to do so might have seen him banished from his
homeland, local media reported at the time.

A first-hand account of activities at Incwala has been
circulating in media
outlets for years.

In 2011the Southern Africa Report and Africa is
a Country, reported an eyewitness testimony of Incwala. Africa is a
Country said, ‘The ceremony is cloaked in secrecy and marks the king’s
return to public life after a period of withdrawal and spiritual contemplation.

‘Among its highlights is a symbolic demonstration by the King
of his power and dominance in a process involving his penetration of a black
bull, beaten into semi-conscious immobility to ensure its compliant acceptance
of the royal touch. The royal semen is then collected by a courtier and stored,
for subsequent inclusion in food to be served at Sibaya – traditional councils
– and other national forums.’

Student leaders in Swaziland are complaining that universities and colleges
in the kingdom are refusing to allow them to represent their constituents.

The Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS), a national body that is not
recognised by the Government, says a number of tertiary institutions fail to
recognise duly-elected Student Representative Councils (SRCs). Instead, SNUS
said in a statement, the administrations in many of them choose students
themselves to be the spokesperson for their colleagues.

SNUS Secretary General Dlamini
Stacky said, ‘It has come to our attention that some tertiary institutions
are still operating like “farms” as students are continuously repudiated
freedom of expression and right to representation. This is evidenced by various
tertiary administrations’ failure to recognize Student Representative Councils
(SRCs) as legitimate bodies put up to champion student’s issues.

‘What is of shock and embarrassment is the fact that these bodies were
democratically elected by the studentry to be their
voices.’

SNUS listed a number of tertiary education
institutions that were ignoring duly-elected student leaders.

Stacky added, ‘As we speak tertiary
institutions like Good Shepherd have no SRCs not because the students do not
want such structure to be in place but it is due to arrogant repressive uncooperative
dictating administration.

‘We are reliably informed that in Limkokwing University of Creative
Technology, the SRC is not taken seriously as the institution’s administration
works hand in hand with imposed ambassadors who tend to be rumour mongers and
spies of the administration.

‘We are aware of the compromise of SRCs in colleges like William Pitcher and
Ngwane as the Dean of Student Affairs play double roles; that of being a
lecturer (who carries a red pen) and that of being an office addressing
student’s concerns.

‘SRC members work in fear of victimization as the officer vehemently
threatens them not to question anything seen to be maladministrative or face
suspension, failure if not expulsion.

‘Institutions like SANU (Southern Africa Nazarene University), SCOT
(Swaziland College of Technology) and
UNISWA (University of Swaziland) treat SRCs as “political minded confused kids”
who are incapacitated to lead, this is displayed during elections.

‘The administrations always want to put their own deployed stooges into
positions and if such does not materialize, they either halt student’s
operations by frustrating them financially or delay hand-over so they can
shorten their period of office.’

The report is just one in a long list to draw attention to the plight of ordinary Swazi people. About seven in ten of the population, in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, live in abject poverty, with incomes of less than US$2 a day.

In October 2014, the Office of the Swaziland Deputy Prime Minister Paul Dlamini reported that 223,249 people were estimated to require interventions aimed at maintaining their livelihood and at least 67,592 of the Swazi population required immediate food assistance. This was contained in a report from the kingdom’s Vulnerability Assessment Committee.

Earlier in 2014, the Global Hunger Index report published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) revealed the proportion of people who were undernourished more than doubled in Swaziland since 2004-2006 and in 2011-2013 was 35.8 percent of the kingdom’s 1.3 million population or about 455,000 people.

IFPRI reported that since 1990, life expectancy in Swaziland fell by ten years, amounting to only 49 years in 2012.

IFPRI defines undernourishment as an inadequate intake of food - in terms of either quantity or quality.

The latest reports underscore numerous previous surveys demonstrating the state of hunger in the kingdom. While seven in ten of the population live in abject poverty, the King has 14 wives, 13 palaces, a private jet and fleets of BMW and Mercedes cars.

In 2012, three separate reports from the World Economic Forum, United Nations and the Institute for Security Studies all concluded the Swazi Government was largely to blame for the economic recession and subsequent increasing number of Swazis who had to skip meals.

The reports listed low growth levels, government wastefulness and corruption, and lack of democracy and accountability as some of the main reasons for the economic downturn that led to an increasing number of hungry Swazis.

Poverty is so grinding in Swaziland that some people, close to starvation, are forced to eat cow dung in order to fill their stomachs before they can take ARV drugs to treat their HIV status.In 2011, newspapers in Swaziland reported the case of a woman who was forced to take this drastic action. Once the news went global, apologists for King Mswati denounced the report as lies.

In July 2012, Nkululeko Mbhamali, Member of Parliament for Matsanjeni North, said people in the Swaziland lowveld area had died of hunger at Tikhuba.

It added, ‘During the strike, management refused the workers access to
water, toilets and medical facilities.’

The Mail and Guardian newspaper in South Africa reported, ‘Maloma colliery produces anthracite, and is the last
remaining official mine in Swaziland and an important source of revenue for the
country. Chancellor House Holdings, which was started as an investment arm of
the ruling ANC [African National Congress] in South Africa, own 75 percent of
the mine, while the remaining 25 percent is owned by the Tibiyo Taka Ngwane, a
billion-rand trust effectively controlled by Swaziland’s King Mswati III.’

Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary, said, ‘The Swazi dictatorship is
well-known for its absolute intolerance of trade unions, or any other form of
democratic activity. These workers simply want justice and have done nothing to
justify the threat of violence from the Swazi King’s security forces.’

The Mail and Guardian
reported, ‘Mswati’s regime has clamped down heavily on trade union activity in
Swaziland, which critics say is thanks to the King’s stake in every major
business in the country. The newly formed Trade Union Congress of
Swaziland (TUCOSWA) was effectively declared illegal in 2013 following
protests demanding greater democratic mechanisms.’

Dumezweni Dlamini, programme manager at the Foundation For Social
Economic Justice, told the newspaper
that police response to strike action had become a regular feature in
Swaziland.

‘The royalty has shares in most of the major companies in Swaziland so
it is a case of protecting of those interests,’ the newspaper quoted Dlamini
saying. ‘The trade unions have been banned because there were coming together
and challenging as a united force’